ABC Family’s Q&A Session with Randy Wayne – The Lying Game
Moderator When you first learned that you had landed the role in The Lying Game, did you
have that moment of intimidation because of the success of Pretty Little Liars,
which was also inspired by the books of Sara Shepard?
R. Wayne I was not too intimidated by the success of Pretty Little Liars. I thought it would
only be helpful. And I knew that I wasn’t the lead of the show, so that pressure
was not on my back, on my shoulders. But I had worked with Alexandra in the
past and I knew that she was a very talented actress, so I knew that she could
handle the pressure and I would just go along with it.
Moderator Now that everything is out in the open about Justin’s real motive for tracking
down Ted, does that open a door for Justin and Laurel to pick up their romance
again?
R. Wayne Yes, it definitely does. I think that Laurel gets a sense that Justin is actually
100% being honest with her. And not only does she get a sense, but she really
wanted to believe him and she wants to trust him, so it’s a big moment for their
relationship. I guess the big question now is, I don’t think Ted’s going to accept
them being together now after what his motives are. You don’t want a kid
around that wanted to come and get revenge on you, dating your daughter,
even though it’s out in the open now. So I think that’s the big controversy now
is how is he going to deal with the kid dating his daughter that wanted to get
revenge on him.
Moderator What’s next for Justin? Is he going to continue to dig into Ted’s past, or is Justin
ready to let the past stay in the past?
R. Wayne Love conquers all, and in this situation I think he just wants to forget about it
and just focus all of his attention on Laurel. As far as I know, Justin just wants to
focus on her to make it work.
Moderator Originally you guest starred in an episode of Hot in Cleveland, you played a blind
character. How did you prepare for that role and what was it like working with
Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Joe Jonas?
R. Wayne You know what’s funny, I actually had to leave the set of The Lying Game and fly
straight to LA and get to the set, I left the airport and went straight to the set of
Hot in Cleveland, and I missed a day and a half of rehearsal because of The Lying
Game, so I was a little bit behind and I was scrambling and there wasn’t too
much time to prepare. And it was cool because when it comes to playing a blind
guy they just said look off, don’t look too much at her face, and when you’re
doing a scene just focus on where to go. They said he’s used to being blind so
play it normal, just don’t look at her. And working with Joe Jonas and Jennifer
Love-Hewitt was cool, because Jennifer Love-Hewitt actually is extremely funny
and a naturally gifted comedic actress, and Joe Jonas, for all the fame he’s had,
he’s a really down-to-earth guy.
Moderator Betty White’s also in that show. Is she as funny off-screen as she is on-screen?
R. Wayne Oh my God, she is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met in my life. If you
have a joke she pays attention and she’ll laugh at it and then she’ll always come
back with her own jokes. She’s definitely up there in age, but you would never
know it by just talking to her. She’s brilliant.
Moderator Now that Justin and Laurel are kind of back together, Allie actually revealed in a
different interview that things are going to be rocky between the two of them
for a while. Where do you see their relationship headed for the rest of the
season?
R. Wayne Well, there are several ways to go, things with their relationship now. Ted
obviously is not going to want them to date and they want to date, so they have
to start hiding their relationship. And that’s going to be a whole new thing,
where Justin doesn’t want to do that anymore. He wants to be honest, but now
he has to still hide a relationship and still, in a way, lie about it. And that means
that Laurel’s being brought into the lies, which she hasn’t really been involved in
yet. And also she’s in the band, and so being in the band causes a big
distraction from Justin and I’m sure Justin will start getting a little jealous of the
attention that the band’s getting over him.
Moderator Trust is a big issue for every character on this show. Who do you feel has the
most to lose for the rest of the season?
R. Wayne I guess it’s really a toss-up between Justin and Emma, because if Justin doesn’t
have Laurel he doesn’t have anything. He moved to Arizona for a certain reason
and then that reason’s over, and now he’s only there for one more and that’s
Laurel, so if he doesn’t have her I don’t see what his reasoning would be to be
there anymore. Then obviously Emma, because without Ethan or without a
family she has nothing to go back to, just like Justin, so they’d both be on their
own.
Moderator It seems like almost anything could happen on this show, so if it were up to you
what would you like to see happen to Justin in the next few months?
R. Wayne That’s a good question. And I hate to answer it this way, but if you want me to
be honest I will, I think that Justin’s always played the nice guy, whether his
intentions were not, so he’s always come off as a nice guy except for maybe a
couple of scenes. And actually the scenes where he was a bad guy I enjoyed
doing so I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind playing a bad guy on the show, I
wouldn’t mind Justin, if they did break up, Laurel and Justin, then he’s in this
town and he’s going to cause some controversy, and I think I’d like to see that
happen.
Moderator What is it like being surrounded by so many beautiful and talented women at
work every day?
R. Wayne Well, it’s amazing. It’s not tough. The thing about the girls on the show is that
yes, they’re all really beautiful, but they’re also really cool, so there’s no egos on
set. And it just makes it so easy. You know that they’re beautiful, but it’s not
intimidating at all and it’s just fun. It’s like living the high life.
Moderator How do the fans react to you when they see you? When they run into you on
the street do they come up and start talking to you and treat you like you’re
Justin, or are they finding it easy to separate Randy from Justin?
R. Wayne That’s a really good question. It’s so funny, because on Twitter people would be
like, "I love Justin, or IamRandyWayne," (@IamRandyWayne is Randy's Twitter
handle) yada yada, they’d go on about that, but then when the episodes came
up where he was being rude to Laurel and making her cry, people turned and
they were like, "I hate IAmRandyWayne. I want to slap you ..., why are you so
mean," just not separating the character from the actor. People I don’t think
would come up to you in general because of your character , but in person it’s
nice and respectful and there’s separation, there’s a curiosity about what’s
going to happen next, but online and in the Twitter world there definitely is not
much separation sometimes.
Moderator Yes, is it a little concerning to you? When you go out in public are you a little,
oh, I wonder if I should really go out incognito?
R. Wayne No, I’m not worried about that. I actually appreciate when people get
frustrated with the character because that’s the point. If they’re not frustrated
then I’m not doing my job. The beauty of acting is making people like you and
then dislike you and then like you again, because you can write something a
certain way, but if you don’t bring that to the character then it’s not going to
work. To see people change their mind about you and your character, it’s
entertaining and I love to hear it. I actually like when people approach me in
public. I’m not so famous where it’s annoying. So it’s actually kind of fun.
Moderator I watched Alexandra Chando in As the World Turns and I really enjoyed watching
her. I was just wondering what she was like to work with and how is she off set?
R. Wayne She’s brilliant to work with because she takes her work very seriously. She’s not
the kind that actually comes to set and goofs around when she does a scene.
She has no problem piping up and asking the writer and director and the
producer and saying how can we make this work. She’s very, very professional
and very talented, of course. Then off set once she’s separated from the two
she’s just a fun young girl and just loves life. She’s always high on life. It’s great.
Moderator If you could have anybody on the show as a guest star who would you pick?
R. Wayne In the fantasy world, let’s see, we could have Paul Giamatti play my dad; that
would be interesting. But in the realistic world, I don’t know, I think it would be
fun to have someone like, I forget her name, the girl from Glee, the pretty
blonde girl.
Moderator Have you read any of The Lying Game books? And if so, who do you think is
behind the Lying Game?
R. Wayne I haven’t read the books. But I was also told it wasn’t really that important to
read the books because it’s so different from the show.
Moderator I know that you’re a big Tebow fan, but who is your Super Bowl prediction?
R. Wayne Yes, I’m a big fan. I know that Brady’s hot right now, but I’m going to have to
say the Giants 28-23. I think they look unstoppable right now.
Moderator You’re originally from Oklahoma, correct?
R. Wayne That’s right. I’m actually here right now.
Moderator Is your accent something you have to be conscious about all the time to get the
Southern accent out of your character?
R. Wayne You know I’ve actually played a lot of Southern roles and it makes it really easy
for me. But when I moved to LA I realized that I had an accent, I didn’t know
that before, and yes, I had to focus on basically just enunciating and articulating
instead of mumbling so much. But I’ve been home for about three weeks now,
so the accent is definitely creeping back up on me. When I go back to LA in a
week ... I’m going to have to work on it again.
Moderator You recently had a brief encounter with Helen Slater’s character and she was
telling you to leave the party, so I’m feeling like she has the most to lose
because she seems the most clueless out of everyone on the show. Would you
like to work more with her
R. Wayne I would love to work with Helen a lot more. She’s a very, very talented actress
and she comes from such a genuine heartfelt place when she acts that it would
be interesting to see, let’s say it didn’t work out between Justin and Laurel,
there’s already friction between Ted and Kristin, so if Justin went back to his
original plan, Kristin’s the first place to start. I would love it. I would love to
work with her. I’d love to make her character question her relationship a lot
more, and to be the instigator would be fantastic.
Moderator It’s only January and you already have this great guest appearance on Hot in
Cleveland. What other projects have you been working on? Where else are we
going to see you in 2012?
R. Wayne Actually, it’s surreal a little bit, so Monday was The Lying Game, Wednesday was
Hot in Cleveland, and I also did a movie that was on SyFy last night, and then I
did movie called To Save a Life, it’s a teen drama, and it premieres Sunday on
the GMC channel. Also coming up I have a movie called Honey 2 by Universal.
It’s the dance sequel to the original Honey with Jessica Alba. That comes out on
DVD February 26th, I think, 28th, or something like that. So Honey 2 and then I
also have a film that’s coming out called HARDflip. It’s a skateboarding family
drama.
Moderator You recently had some type of knee surgery. Can you tell us about that and
how you’re doing after the surgery?
R. Wayne I was in Thailand over Christmas, and actually on Christmas I rented a motor
bike with my girlfriend and it was my first time to drive one and I thought I could
handle it, and about 45 minutes into my drive I bumped the curb and it threw
me off. She was fine, but I broke my leg and tore my ACL and my meniscus, and
so I had surgery two days ago and now I’m on the rehab train. It’s not fun.